central_fl_fishin

I have tried everything in the phosphate pits in florida. Deep diving cranks, lipless cranks, spoons, deep suspending jerks and even let spinners fall down there. I never have any luck. One time i caught a 3lb'er on a 7" worm 1/4 ounce t-rigged on the shore drop off. I am convinced bass don't go too deep. Maybe 10-15 ft? I would be interested to hear others opinions.

I have the Calcutta 200b. I haven't used the Pluton, yet I love Daiwa and have many, but to replace the Calcutta? No, i would not.

Daiwa Tierra.

I have always wondered what the point of camo line was. That makes total sense. Thanks!

FINALLY!!! someone else who fishes topwater like I do. I use a "modified" 6'2" shimano convergence mh/f however, being that its modified, its become more of a heavy/ extra fast. by modified,I mean the first four inches were broken off by the tailgate of the truck, however it performs worlds better now, because the slightest twitch gets an awesome walk the dog motion. I know a lot of people worry about give in the rod with treble hooks, but I've never had a problem with this. I've got an old green curado Bantam, with 30lb power pro on this setup, and it is a dream come true for all the topwater fishing I do. Dude! My favorite topwater rod is a 7' chopped down to the third eye in a car door accident. Funny..

I personally like a little stretch in my line and a fast tip for my topwaters. I mostly fish hard topwaters with multiple trebles. I am not a fan of ripping the bait out of the fishes mouth. It seems like that would happen with braid and a stiff rod. With frogs being the exception, but I do not frog fish so I can not say. With the stiffer rod/braid setup I set the hook with more of a twitch and reel method rather than a sweep back set. Also, I will set the drag looser when topwater fishing with trebles for the reason you mentioned.

Try a small spinner in a shallow river.

I usually break out the buzzbaits after trying my usual search routine, aside from known spots where I already have the bass figured out. 1. Plastics. Worms or creatures first. Work the area. 2. Spinners on the outside edges of cover or grass. 3. Topwaters, shallow cranks, rapala minnows. 3. Buzzbaits.

I forgot to mention reel type. I like the calcutta baitcasters, the 200b is my favorite.

For topwaters especially walk the dog types, I like a heavier, stiffer rod with braid. For me, this translates into better control of the lure. You don't have to jerk as hard to get the desired action. You can be precise with less movement. Harder hooksets too, i think.

Does anyone ever just use a few double overhands? For years i did and though I thing the palomar is superior,... a few overhands never let me down.

wait... palomar with a double overhand.

palomar.

My wife names everything. I suspect if she named my fishing gear it would be something like.. Buster Line, Hook M. Up & Mark D. Spot.

Trilene XL is great for the money. I would think it is the standard for mono. A good analogy would be that it is the jimmy beam of line. Inexpensive, yet good, not awesome, not bad either.

Spinners have a spring loaded latch to keep the spool tight when casting. When the drag is applied you hear it clicking relative to the drag washers tension. BC's (mostly) use just the drag washers as the spool is naturally free spinning in the cast thus no need to click down to stop. There is a click setting on most conventional SW rells so you can hear when a strike occurs, this is a different mechanism.

The tierra rocks. For the money i would not switch but just get another one.

I keep two spools for my stradic 2500. One with 8lb mono for bass/specks on the lakes and one with 20lb braid when i head to the inter-coastal mangroves for reds.

After a few months dialing in my shimano calcutta 200b reel, rod and line combo I came up with the calcutta 200b on a shimano teramar TMC-X70MH with 20lb power-pro line. Quick hookset, lots of drag power yet still light enough to cast 1/8oz bullet t-rigged plastics with no problems. Seems kinda heavy but lands the big'ns straight up. Anyone else out here like the smaller calcuttas for bass?

I used to fish mono then switched to power-pro braid. The braid is great until you get knots in the line, spool dig and such. Went back to mono and then realized i liked the stretchy feel, easy knot untangles and most of all the PRICE. You can't beat good old clear mono yard for yard.

When it all boills down to catchin bass.. an old pool cue with mama's canvas thread, a 3/0 offset and a culprit 7" grape curly tail flipped into the pads will produce.... ;D

Diawa Tierra 153H and St. Croix Triumph. About 150 for both and completely awesome. I fish this setup daily with 10lb mono and land 'em always. Just find out where they are, set the hook and pull 'em in. :-X

Stop using Floro. It's for leaders. Spinners will twist line but not that bad. If that was true then spinning reels would totally suck and no one would use them. Line twist on spinners is mostly due to the wrong size line on the reel... or spooling up with floro..

I know I am not answering your question, but in reference to light tackle baitcasters.... the Diawa Tierra 153H casts light tackle very well for a BC.

I am sure the manufactures of braid would not sell a line that would cut into rod guides. The difference is in strength. Braid does not cut into ceramic, steel, composites or other metals. It's just stronger. It may sound different when you cast and reel, but it's probably not like a saw cutting into your guides... :-X